Hey Uber, Here's A Solution To Your Surge Price Woes That Could Make You A Ton Of Money

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick after New Years in 2012, when surge pricing complaints peaked.Uber's BlogEveryone hates Uber's expensive surge pricing model, which charges a multiple to every ride hailed during busy times on the mobile app.

Uber says it needs surge pricing to keep supply and demand in check. If it doesn't entice more drivers to take to the roads during busy times, then a bunch of people will be stranded. Uber prides itself on being reliable above being affordable.

What if Uber gave its users the option to never deal with surge pricing again?

Currently, Uber generates all of its revenue from taking a 20% cut of all fares. Drivers keep 80%. If Uber was interested in an additional revenue stream, it could offer a premium monthly or annual account for users that's a guaranteed ride, surge free.

Premium accounts could offer all sorts of things, such as a set number of rides/minutes per month, priority hailing over other customers, access to swanky vehicles or special promotions, and no surge pricing. And if Uber still needs to monetarily entice drivers during peak hours, it can use some of the subscription money as an advance surge price, to be allocated at the appropriate time to drivers.

How much would you pay for a premium Uber service? $50-100 per month? More? If just 100,000 users paid $100 for the service, that'd generate an extra $10 million for Uber per month. If you take a few Ubers per month, that pricing model could be worth it — especially if Uber has its way and convinces people they no longer need to buy their own vehicle s.

And like the cars you can hail, Uber could have multiple tiers of paid accounts that escalate in "baller-ness" with price. Uber already generates billions of dollars per year. If it wants to generate a few billion more, subscriptions may be the way to go.